


All you wanted I could be

by orphan_account



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: DamianLovesHisGrandpa2020, Damian’s love languages are acts and gifts, Fluff, Gen, No Angst, Schmoop, and his family and friends love him back a whole lot, attempts at humor, he loves his family very much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:42:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26022103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: “Breathe a word of it to anyone and die again, Todd.”“Can’t make Alfie breakfast if I’m dead, now, can I?”“My threats are held to no timeframe.”Or, Damian cares about people a whole lot more than he usually lets on. The people in his life see that.
Relationships: Alfred Pennyworth & Damian Wayne, Damian Wayne & Jon Kent, Jason Todd & Damian Wayne, Jonathan Samuel Kent & Damian Wayne
Comments: 9
Kudos: 196
Collections: Damian Loves His Grandpa Challenge 2020





	All you wanted I could be

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone!  
> Damian Wayne is a good person, one that loves people very strongly.  
> As always, I own nothing
> 
> title from "i'm still here" from treasure planet  
> This fic is for gem. 
> 
> i hope you enjoy this fic <3

It had to be perfect.

Damian stared at the monument of his failures, at the list of things he still had to do, the pile of unending, unended, tasks, and tensed.

It was high time to bring in reinforcements.

He dialled and listened as the phone rang, and rang, the moment seemingly endless, before finally-

“Hullo.”

“Kent,” He greeted quickly, “-we have a mission. Stealth. Meet me at home base in twenty minutes.”

“Your home base, or my home base?”

“Which one do you think?” He snapped.

“Well, gee, I don’t know Damian-”

“Robin.”

“ _-Robin_ ,” Jon continued, without missing a beat, “-last time you said home base, I went to yours, except you were at mine’s; then I went back to mine’s, except you’d gone to yours, and-”

He was putting his success in the hands of the source of his headaches.

“Fine. The Manor. Twenty minutes.”

“Can I bring Krypto?”

“What part of ‘stealth’ don’t you understand?”

His phone chimed with the light, airy tones of a text message. From Kent. A picture of Krypto, staring pleadingly into the camera, obviously begging for food. Damian brought the phone back to his ear.

“Fine. You may. We can use him as a distraction should you fail to stay discreet.”

“Sweet,” Jon cheered, “See you in a sec.”

It wasn’t taking ‘a sec’ for Jon to get there. No, it was taking far too long. Damian was realizing that with dread.

Finally, on the nineteenth minute mark, Jon flew into the Cave, Krypto hot on his heels, a flurry of red cape.

“Okay. What are we doing? Fair warning, dad’s keeping an ear out, and I can’t leave the city or to go after any of the Rogues.”

Damian took the time to greet Krypto properly before tentatively explaining, when the dog finally rushed out to meet Titus. Jon listened without a complaint, only smiling hugely at the end.

“Are you kidding? Yeah, yeah I’m up for helping with that.”

“Good,” Damian nodded, stiffly. “Thank you. Much appreciated.”

“You’re a really sweet person, you know that Dami?”

Damian stared for a moment, at a loss of what to say.

“Likewise,” he said at last.

Jon sniggered.

“Awkward, though.”

“And here I thought you’d become bearable.”

The quip got him a punch to the shoulder.

\--------------

Rather than distract, Krypto almost betrayed them. They’d not been planning for ten minutes, that-

“Young Master Kent,” Pennyworth greeted, holding the dog by its collar. It was being surprisingly good natured about it, not trying to escape his grasp in the slightest. “-I was not made aware you were staying over.”

“Haha, yeah, funny that you should mention that.” Kent said, confidence melting in the face of Pennyworth’s unwavering stare. Damian needed to master that trick. “I’m not, really-”

He was going to give the whole thing away. He had to intervene. Immediately.

“Apologies, Pennyworth. I needed to socialize.”

“Indeed?”

“Yes,” He said, feeling slightly embarrassed at the confession, no matter how false. Pennyworth knelt, put a hand on his shoulder.

“Is everything alright, lad?”

“I am well, thank you.”

“You wouldn’t happen to be planning something, would you, Master Damian?”

“Of course not.”

Pennyworth’s eyes turned knowing.

“Ah. Of course not. Well. Try not to leave the house, would you?”

“We won’t,” Damian assured him.

\----------

They were in the middle of preparations, hanging upside down with Jon’s help, when the next, crucial and unpredictable, step of Damian’s plan showed up.

“Brats, what _on earth_ are you doing?” came a deep, obnoxious, voice, causing Damian to almost bite through his tongue.

It was a habit he’d always had, sticking it out a bit when he concentrated. He could almost hear Alfred’s stern chiding of ‘It’s going to fall off someday, Master Damian.’ He felt vindicated, now, every time their butler’s efforts focused on Todd instead, even though he despised sharing the habit with the oaf.

Damian turned to face the Red Hood’s helmet. It looked even stupider upside down.

“You didn’t see a thing.” he said, and tugged on Jon’s cape. They flew down, landed in front of Todd.

“Like hell, I didn’t. What’s going on? Why did you call me here?”

“I cannot explain this here.” Todd took his helmet off, frowned. “There will be a briefing.”

“Oh, _will_ there?”

There was. Before long, they were in his room. Where he could trust there to be no spying eyes or ears. Jon had thrown himself in Damian’s bright blue bean bag, Todd had taken a seat in his desk chair. Damian himself stood to attention in the middle of the room.

“Alright,” Todd said. “Briefing. Get on with it.”

“I was led to believe-”

“Oh boy.”

“-that Pennyworth appreciates your cooking.”

A pleased flush overtook Todd’s cheekbones. He lost some of his cocky demeanor.

“Maybe. What’s it to you?”

“Pennyworth has served this family for the past thirty odd years-”

“Forty-three.” Todd interrupted.

“Yes, for nearly as long as you’ve been alive, I’ve just established that. As I was saying, Pennyworth-”

“Are you trying to call me old, you little brat?”

“-has served this family for the past forty-three years,” Damian continued in a chilling tone, but found himself trailing off. Todd’s interruption has broken his train of thought, and he was suddenly unsure how to explain what he wanted to do without being mocked for it.

He rallied.

“I thought he might welcome a gesture. Of appreciation.”

“A gesture. Of appreciation.”

“Yes, that.”

“My cooking. A gesture of appreciation.”

“Better than Mr Drake’s.” Jon said, snickering. Drake had once tried to cook for the Clone, Damian knew. However, he hadn’t known that Jon had been in range of the biohazard the attempt had ended up being.

“It isn’t the only thing we’re doing.” Damian persisted, refusing to let his eyes drop, resisting the urge to mumble. “Simply your part in it.”

Todd gripped him in a headlock, completely messing his hair up in the process. Damian kicked him in the shin, not deigning to protest out loud. Todd squeezed tighter, making him stumble into his side.

“ ‘S fine, brat. I wasn’t criticizing, just surprised. It’s a nice idea. Thoughtful. Alfie will love it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Really.”

“Damian’s got a whole list of stuff planned. It’s really long-”

“Most of it is done, already. There’s no need to dwell on it.” Damian interjected before the situation got any more humiliating. Jon blissfully continued on, either unaware of what he was doing, or fully intending to get back at Damian for annoying him in front of the Clone.

“There’s cleaning the Cave, and that took him two nights, I didn’t know it was full of guano, but he explained and it’s gross. Then, today we left gifts in all the places Mr Pennyworth usually cleans. But Damian made it complicated, he chose the gifts according to when he would clean those places, so he gets something-”

“Enough.” Damian snapped.

“So _that’s_ what you were doing in Rex’s mouth.”

“Breathe a word of it to anyone and die again, Todd.”

“Can’t make Alfie breakfast if I’m dead, now, can I?”

“My threats are held to no timeframe.”

\---------

Wrangling Drake into cooperating proved easier than anticipated. He was one of the last family members Damian went to talk to. Grayson and Father had been the easiest to talk to, obviously, followed closely by Brown. Then Cain, Thomas, and Todd.

Even better, he was with Brown when Damian went to knock on his door, providing him with an unexpected ally.

“Jason said you might talk to me about something,” said Drake, frowning, looking down the corridor like it was going to throw giant jellyfishes at him.

“Did he explain?”

Drake tensed.

“Can’t say he did.”

“Dames, you know no one’s going to make fun of you for this, right?”

Drake squinted at Brown.

“You know what’s going on.”

“Of course I do, it’s obvious to anyone with more than the half-dead braincell you’re stuck with.”

“Harsh, but fair,” Drake said, with a smile in his voice where it didn’t show on his face. “Okay, Gremlin, I’ll bite. What’s going on?”

\----------

While Grayson had been the first person to make him feel like family once he’d arrived in Gotham, Pennyworth was the first to make him feel welcome. It was no mistake, nor coincidence, that he’d named one of his pets after the butler. He’d been there, ready with a kind word, or a thoughtful action from the very first day, no matter how Damian had treated him. No matter how other people had treated Damian, even when he failed to meet expectations.

_(“No matter what I do… I’ll never win no matter what I try, will I?”_

_“I’m afraid it’s rather like that with some people.”_

_“I don’t mean people. I could care less about them.”_

_“Don’t lie to yourself, lad. You’re better than that.”_

_And Damian had scowled. Pennyworth had taken it with grace, even that early on._

_“But if you meant life generally speaking, then no. Sometimes you simply won’t win.”_

_“What’s the point, then?”_

_“My boy, you’ve had odds stacked against you since the very beginning. I’ve never known you to be one to give up.”_

_“Of course I’m not.” he’d felt his eyes fill with tears. “-what a ridiculous notion.”_

_“Master Damian, you have come a long way. All through hard work on your part, no matter what some people would have you believe. It’s okay to fail, sometimes. I want you to know that I’m **exceedingly** proud of you.” _

_“Thank you,” Damian had said._

_“Of course, young Master. Always.”_ _)_

He’d relentlessly studied and practiced dishes Damian missed, played him at chess, endured his complaining, let schemes slide, appreciated his art.

He’d taken care of his pets when Damian had not been able to.

To say that Damian wanted this to work was an understatement.

“Your siblings have been excessively helpful as of late.” Pennyworth remarked noncommittally, over their weekly game of chess. They were enjoying the game, and a cup of chai, in one of the living rooms, as Todd read on the sofa like there weren’t a thousand other free rooms he could lounge in.

“A rare occurrence, I’m sure.”

“I resent that.”

“Mmh.” Pennyworth hummed, startlingly reminiscent of Father in that. “I love you dearly, my boy, I hope you know that.”

Damian tried to answer. Pennyworth smiled, reached out, and saved them both the awkwardness.

“I don’t suppose you could convince them to stay for dinner, would you?”

Todd played along, while he tried to find his voice back.

“What have you made, Alfie?”

“Roast, Master Jason. It is Sunday, after all.”

“Ah, yes, the infamous Sunday Roast,” Damian said dryly, “When one engages in the weekly tradition of verbally crushing family.”

“Quite,” Pennyworth hummed, with humor glinting in his eyes, “More chai, Master Damian?”

Damian smiled back.

“Please.”

“Oh no,” Todd shook his head, then a finger for good measure, “No, no, no, no, no. You two don’t get to team up on the rest of us.”

“Why Master Jason I have no earthly idea what you could mean.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please take good care of yourself <3


End file.
